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Island School PTA Newsletter
NOVEMBER 2017
MESSAGE FROM THE CO-CHAIRS
Hello, everyone!
We are happy to see our students back from Quest Week with tales of adventure and new experiences. Quest week is one of the highlights in the school year, where students and teachers can bond outside of the classroom settings. To catch a glimpse of the various trips, do check out the school’s Facebook page - ESF Island School.
A lot will be happening over the next 2 months, with the upcoming Parents’ Roundtable on 30th November, followed by the exciting Winter Fair on 2nd December and the rapidly approaching decant before the X’mas season. The ISPTA Committee is now busy organising the international food stalls in the school hall and the popular BBQ hot dog stall in the playground for the last Winter Fair at our current school campus, while we are also getting ready for the move in full gear!
As we welcome the year of 2018 at the new campuses in Shatin Wai & Tai Wai, there will be some new arrangements for ISPTA.
With Island School being the first secondary school to pilot the ESF uniform central procurement scheme, the ISPTA have been working closely with the new uniform supplier and the school on adding new designs to our winter uniform and PE kit.
After the transition, the school will assume the management and operation of both the Uniform & Bookshop as well as the bus services, while ISPTA will focus on community building and planning events that can bring parents together to foster the spirit of Island School.
One of our initiatives, the parent’s WhatsApp groups, has contributed tremendously in improving communication and understanding the needs of the parent body, engaging them to share information that are of interest and providing support to fellow parents in the different year groups.
As the Co-Chairs, we have been managing the ISPTA shop since early September after the departure of the PTA Manager. We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new PTA Manager, Mr Azeez Kasubhai, who has recently joined us in October and also express our heartfelt thanks to our PTA Administrator, Miss Christine Wong, for diligently helping us with the shop operations and accounts over the past 3 years. We wish her luck in her future endeavours.
Last but not least, a BIG THANK YOU to our many parent volunteers who devoted their time to help at the Uniform and Bookshop over the past few months. The ISPTA relies on parent’s involvement to help with various activities that benefit our students and the school community as a whole. We encourage you to get involved! Do drop by the ISPTA shop or send us an email to sign up as a volunteer!
We look forward to seeing you at the Winter Fair! And wish you all a Merry Christmas.
Alefiyah Ebrahim & Sheila Chan (ISPTA Co-Chairs)
UPCOMING EVENTS
ISPTA Parents' Roundtable
30th November 2017, Thursday 6.45 - 8PM
Years 10 | 11 | 12
We are looking to run the Second Parents' Round Table in November 2017. The objective of the Round Table session is for us all to engage in a constructive discussion where we can learn from the experiences of parents who’ve gone before us. We steer the conversation towards the panel’s EXPERIENCE of the process, rather than the process per se and keep it constructive. We will have the Panelists to give high level overview of their personal experience. They are not responsible for the curriculum but place their experiences within the structure of what is available.
We would possibly be focussing on the experiences around three topics (we will be requesting for any specific topics the parents want discussed):
- Your experience of how Elements courses feed into IB.
- Your experience of Elements courses helping in the overall HE process/university application.
- University Choices - experience of applying to UK/USA/Canada/Australia
Then we open up for General Q & A.
We are heartened by the success of the session in March and look forward to learning and supporting each other.
Island School Winter Fair
2nd December 2017, Saturday 2-6:30pm
Do not miss the last winter fair before decant!
PTA is looking for parent volunteers and baked goods donations. Please let us know at pta@online.island.edu.hk or alefiyah@gmail.com if you can lend a hand.
Career Fair
Do you have a career you’d like to share? We are looking for professionals to share their careers with students. Stay tuned!
Higher Education Coffee Mornings
- Friday 2 March 2018, 8-9:30am - Tai Wai Site (Site B) - we envisage that the focus for this is to give an overview of the careers programme and talk about questions parents have about the higher education programme in Years 12 and 13 and related Q & A
- Friday 4 May 2018, 8-9:30am - Shatin Wai Site (Site A) - this is an opportunity for parents, especially those with student in Year 12, to ask about the year ahead
SAVE THE DATE!
Key Dates
- DEC 2 (Saturday): 2-6:30 PM Winter Fair
- DEC 5 (Tuesday): Inter-house Athletics Final (Wanchai Sports Ground)
- DEC 5 (Tuesday): 7-8:30 PM Light up a Life Concert (St. John's Cathedral)
- DEC 6 (Wednesday): PTA Y11 Coffee Morning
- DEC 5 (Tuesday): Visit to Island School Sha Tin Wai (campus for Years 7 – 8, 12 – 13)
- DEC 7 (Thursday): Visit to Island School Tai Wai (campus for Years 9 – 11)
- DEC 6-8 (Wed-Fri): 7 PM Whole School Production- His Dark Materials
- Dec 9 (Saturday): Rainbow Trek
Decant Timeline
- Dec 14th: Last day of school on current campus
- Dec 15th: Island school closed for students
- Dec 16th- Jan 7th Christmas break - have a wonderful time with your loved ones
- Jan 8th and 9th: Island school closed for students
- Jan 10th First day on new campuses
Upcoming TFL and Parent teacher meetings
November: Y7 Tutoring for learning
January-February:
Y9 Tutoring for learning
Y11 parent teacher conferences
Y12 parent teacher conferences
Please see school calendar at http://island.edu.hk/calendar/ for details and more events
It's a good way to be in touch with other parents from your child’s year group and address queries, advice, ideas and help in settling down and being part of the Island School community.
We have 13 WhatsApp groups managed by Parent Representatives of each year group, who help to connect the parent community. These groups are especially useful for parents who are new to Island School.
If you would like to sign up, you can email PTA at pta@online.island.edu.hk or alefiyah@gmail.com. Please include parent's name, child's name, phone contact & class.
ISLAND SCHOOL DECANT NEWS
Bus Details for Travel to the Shatin Campuses
We are also pleased to announce that Island School, in combination with Kwoon Chung bus company will be taking over the organisation of the booking and operations from January 2018. This will result in all bus bookings being processed online, thereby improving efficiency for parents and the school. The system will go live on 23rd October and close on 3rd November. At this point Kwoon Chung will analyse the sign-up and may adjust the routes accordingly.
If you have any concerns regarding any aspect of the bus travel please contact the transition helpline on school@online.island.edu.hk. Any requests for extra pick up locations will be passed onto Kwoon Chung for their analyses.
Click here to see the bus routes and cost.
http://island.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ISRT17-18_proposed-bus-fee-v2.pdf
Click here to see some FAQs around the bus travel.
http://island.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/bus-travel-v2.pdf
FIRST TERM EVENTS
Quiz and Curry Night
The second Quiz and Curry Night took place on 14 Sep 2017, and 16 teams of students, parents and teachers showed their true colours as they answered 7 rounds of colour themed questions. This year’s winning team were Quizzly Bears from Rutherford House. The Quiz was hosted by Vice Principal Jenny Hodson and Director of Arts Stephen Coats. Delicious curry was made by the students from Elements courses Lord’s Kitchen and A Food Lover’s Guide to Culture. PTA hosted the drinks table.
Discussions Term 1 Coffee Mornings
ESF 50th Anniversary Marathon
ESF 50th Anniversary Marathon and community carnival took place on October 22nd at the Central Harbour front. Over 2,000 participants joined the celebration and community fun. PTA volunteers together with Island School staff and students provided program at the community carnival. Our very talented student artists volunteered as face painters bringing joy and carnival sprit to youngest participants, whereas staff and parent volunteers promoted the school.
COMMITTEE NEWS
Island School Council
Chair | Mr Michael Lok
ISPTA representative | Alefiyah Ebrahim
Thank you to Robert Gibson for his role on the school council as independent parent member. We extend a warm welcome to Michael Lok who will be joining the council in his place.
Thank you to all parents who took part in the election.
COMPAR ( Committee of Parents on ESF Board) - Chair | Christine Meaney
ISPTA representative | Alefiyah Ebrahim & Sheila Chan
Parent Representatives
SHOP NEWS
Welcome our new PTA Office Manager - Azeez Kasubhai
A new face in the ISPTA office since Mid October is Azeez Kasubhai, who joined as the new ISPTA Manager.
Azeez brings with him his excellent management capabilities and experience. Being an ESF parent and alumnus, Azeez understands the needs of our school community and will be able to support PTA and parents through the decant. Azeez will be ensuring the smooth day-to-day operation of the PTA office and and events as well as supporting the committee.
Please do drop by the office and say ‘hello’.
School Uniforms and Book Shop
Volunteers are welcome. Please contact pta@online.island.edu.hk if you can spare some time to help out at the PTA Shop!
Uniform Update
The school will assume responsibility from the ISPTA for uniform provision when we move to the Transition sites at Sha Tin. Making this move streamlines our service to parents in the future.
As we implement this changeover it is probable that our stock of some items of uniform may become exhausted. This is particularly the case for some aspects of the winter uniform. In cases where the PTA Uniform Shop is out of stock in a particular size or garment (e.g. sweatshirts, fleece jackets and other items of winter wear), students may wear a non-uniform item in plain dark colours, preferably navy. Logos and decoration should be kept to a minimum. Please be mindful that jeans are not considered to be an acceptable substitute for trousers.
Parents should be reassured that school considers the welfare of students a priority and, as the weather cools, no student is expected to be cold at school. If you have any queries regarding this please contact the school or the PTA office for further advice.
Second Hand Books For Sale
Many second books are available for 20$ each at the PTA Book Shop.
1) First-come first serve basis.
2) No email or phone reservations allowed.
3) Deadline is before 1st December, 2017.
Suggestions
If you do have any suggestions for improvement, please email us at pta@online.island.edu.hk
We would appreciate you extend us the courtesy of a contact email or phone so we can update you on how we addressed your queries.
Island School PTA - Contact us
Email: pta@online.island.edu.hk
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/online.island.edu.hk/island-school-pta/latest-news
Location: Borrett Road, Mid-level, Hong Kong
Phone: 2140 6806
Island School PTA is the owner of the copyright in all content of this publication. Distributing, modifying, copying or using any content of this publication in any manner for public or commercial purposes without written permission from Island School is strictly prohibited. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of Island School or the English Schools Foundation.